The Conclave - Artwork

Revelations is offering a unique opportunity for open discussion between Clive and his fans. Here is your space - a place to discuss topics relating to Clive's works where your thoughts will be posted ahead of our next interview with Clive. Having seen the entries posted here, we'll be encouraging Clive to join the discussion, respond to your observations and and to add his own thoughts..! We hope to foster intelligent and informed debate, so 'play nicely', send us your thoughts (and maybe images) by e-mail (with 'The Conclave' in the header) and we'll put your unedited words in front of Clive... Choose a piece of Clive's artwork and share your thoughts on it... Revelations: "The painting originally came to mind when we were writing to you last about The Man in the Trees and comparing and contrasting what styles of painting we’d comfortably buy and put on our walls. "It came to mind because of its vibrancy of colour and – as with The Man in the Trees – because it’s a painting where both the foreground and background are important elements and where the subject is not ‘contained’ within the canvas: the shoots are not contained by the space, creation pushes past the borders of the painting. "Organic penises growing on the vines celebrate a joy of life, of abundance, of fecundity. Rapid organic growth is a recurrent theme in your written work (Eden USA, the Nonce in Abarat, even the way that the world unfurled from the weave in Weaveworld) as is the malleability of protean life and that’s what struck us in this painting – with other examples including Princess Breath and your covers for books four and five of the Books of Blood. "We have different interpretations of what has led this particular Earth Martyr to appear in his current condition. It’s open to the viewer as to whether the piercing is fundamental or incidental. The piece demands consideration of the man’s motivation – has he (a) just now deliberately squatted on spikes, (b) deliberately assumed a squatting position some time earlier in the knowledge that the fast-growing shoots will pierce him or (c) have the shoots simply grown around and through him whilst he has been meditating? "Part of this divergence between the two of us concerns whether his anus has also been penetrated (maybe you can confirm?). The ornate scarlet flowering in this area of his body certainly suggests a device to attract attention. However, the two short, sharp spikes that have penetrated his leg and penis have thin stems while the thickness of the stem near his anus suggests a growth that would reach to his chest at least (though this might explain his slightly cross-eyed look!). Sarah thinks yes (with intent in mind and the lack of shadow on this particular stem), Phil isn’t convinced (constrained by logic perhaps...?) "The whole painting is wilfully organic. The knotted musculature of the martyr’s body appears to be as ‘grown’ as the vines/shoots behind him. "The man’s intent appears to be to celebrate a ‘one-ness’ with nature’s growth – in holding both his flesh-and-blood penis and a plant penis with equal reverence he appears to celebrate being at one with nature and his place within nature. His nakedness is both naturism and naturalism. "There are two ‘holy heads’ with halos in the painting – we interpret this as sanctity of both intellectual curiosity and sexual excitement. The use of religious motifs signals the proximity of spirituality to the everyday – again a sentiment frequently displayed in your work. "As well as the halo, here we have a man with an oversized tika on his forehead – another sign of religious/cultural significance. Is it here a sign that he is wedded to his surroundings like the Bindi tika worn by Indian women to denote they are married? "But… anyone can wear a badge… When all is said and done, neither of us are actually convinced by the martyr… the martyr is not the man we thought he was. Although he bears mortal wounds and religious signs point us towards his near-divinity, we believe him to be a martyr only to himself. "The halo speaks of devotion – but of his devotion to his own desires; a selfish devotion. Perhaps the halo is merely suggestive of a self-centred physical high which approaches (in his mind) the spiritual. "His face betrays him – he is trying too hard. His expression is not one of serenity as much as a pride in his demonstration that he is one with his surroundings. This character is not beatific, he does not demand sympathy from the viewer. "Ultimately, we perceive him to have worked hard to have the organic matter weave itself in and out of him such that he thinks he attains this oneness, but he has manipulated the bamboo for his own devices/appearance rather than truly being one with it. "The painting allows us to dwell for a while in the mind of someone very different to ourselves: to take a personal journey; questioning our reactions to his actions and emerging a little changed from the experience – and isn’t that ultimately what art should convey? "Your written work has always done this for us, and you know this remains our first love. In your painting, we have particular favourites that we dwell on because they offer (for us) another way in behind the scenes of themes being explored in the books. These are pictures that form a jumping off point for ideas or are simply arriving on the page or the canvas as rough markers on the imaginative journey." 23 April 2006 "This again is another huge question - you know Earth Martyr has not sold although we've had a lot of people close to it. It's a very interesting question we have here - part of it's about the scale of the image - as we've said before, people don't have massive walls and it tends to be the pieces that have very graphic erotic material that will tend to go in very private spaces and private spaces, by their very nature, tend to be small. I would love, again, to get more into that so, again, if people have views on that - I mean the dialogue that we were having about the paintings, I'd love to extend that to everybody because I think I can learn." You Called, He Came... Interview for Revelations, 2 and 3 June 2006 (note: full text here) Shiveringshadow666: Death with Red Wings: "This piece of art made me smile because I thought of the Grim Reaper with butterfly wings, flying around out of control, and then crashing gracefully into a brick wall. The green garden type thing growing out of the skulls head, on top, almost like hair made me think about how without death we would be plagued by life and like they say “Too much of a good thing is bad for you…” Personally, I love it. Death fascinates me, and when I saw this picture, it made me think more about it philosophically and religiously. I came upon new ideas of what or who death is. Reversible Forest: "The thoughts that come to mind when I saw this oil on canvas where good and evil were in a classical battle that we all have read, heard, and watched. It is taught to us that it is good to do the right thing and bad to do the wrong thing. Then again, there is that “Well, what if you have to do a bad thing in order to do a good thing?” Personally, to me good and evil have definitions based on what the person believes to be good and/or evil. There are some who don’t believe in evil at all, they believe that there is good in everyone even in the mass murders, psycho child molesters, etc., etc. Then there are the others who believe everyone has a little evil inside him or her. As well as that one persons good could be another person bad. This subject could go on and on and on, as it once did in my English class, we were reading one of the Chronicles of Narnia. As I have said this makes me think of the so-called good and evil of the world. Candy’s last Glimpse of Carrion: "Now the character Carrion I always found ironic because of the simple fact that my loving aunt’s name is K*****. Both names sound alike and in many ways her and the character are alike, well at least I think so. A friend of mine once had a mental break down in school, so they sent her to the hospital, and when she came back she resembled this particular painting. Her eyes had sunk in to her face; she seemed to think that everything was going to attack her, even the paint on the wall. Eventually she had to go back into the hospital because she attacked the mirrors in the school’s lavatory. That was the last time I saw her. "As it reminds me of my lost friend, it also makes me think of loneliness. There is nothing or no one in the back of the Carrion: he is alone. Not that there is anything wrong with being alone, I happen to think and/or do my best when I am alone. This is also why I absolutely despise working in groups. This is the picture I am dying to paint on the door to my room, so my sisters stay out of it but, in the end I love this portrait because I see my mother when I look at it. Green Giant Trapped Underground: "While I was looking at this, a friend of mine says, “My God! If you were to show this to a bunch of anorexic girls they would want to gain weight instead of obsessively lose it. Now I feel like I have to gain weight!” Mind you, my friend is 6’1 and is really thin. She always thought she was fat before she looked at Green Giant Trapped Underground after, she decided to gain weight. Also, to my advantage, she stopped saying “Don’t look at me I’m fat!” when I happen to look at her." 20 August 2006 LD: "There is a real juxtaposition between horror and beauty. David Lynch knows this, you know this... Neil Gaimon flirts with it on occasion. There are many who attempt it either in film or writing or other art - few succeed. Those that do are above the mesh of humanity as we bump into each other on a regular basis without so much as a "hello". We are that cynical and complex in our own thoughts and personal meanings. I love following you on Twitter. Each post is like a new gift and brings me, the fan, closer to an enigmatic artist. Your art displays horror, sexuality, terror and beauty all at the same time. The senses reel at a Clive Barker film or novel or graphic novel! Your tweets are compassionate and heart warming. You, sir, are the living embodiment of sadi juxtaposition." 26 August 2009 Your thoughts here... mail us here...please!" The Conclave | The World According To... Index | Home page This page has been created for information and entertainment purposes only. All quotes remain the copyright of the original owners.